


Love Meter

by ttubami



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, Romance, adapted from twitter, beomgyu is....annoying, playboy yeonjun, shy Soobin, soobin has a Crush and is also an angel, yeonjun is manipulative but its not that bad i swear, yeonjun takes the play in playboy very literally
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22654027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ttubami/pseuds/ttubami
Summary: Yeonjun has the ability to see other people’s “love meter” towards him, and makes a game out of raising the meters of the people he dates to being 100% in love, then seeing how fast he can make them fall out of it before they dump him.He is surprised when his new target, shy & quiet classmate Soobin, stays at 100% no matter what he does.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 61
Kudos: 314





	1. Let the games begin.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello this is my first fic ever on AO3~ I actually wrote it as a ficlet thread on twitter (@ttubami shorturl.at/lRV08), but thought I'd try adapting it for AO3 as well. Hope you enjoy it!

Yeonjun didn't know where the meters came from, or why only he could see them, but to be frank, he really didn't care. To him, they were a free life hack. 

He first noticed them in middle school, after spotting a heart-shaped bubble floating beside the girl sitting in front of him. The bubble was a bright shade of pink, and Yeonjun noticed a percentage marked in white that read "11%". When he tried pointing it out to the girl, she giggled and asked if that was his way of flirting with her. In hindsight, telling someone that you could see a “floating pink heart” next to them could _only_ be interpreted as the world's worst pick-up line. But as lame as it was, it helped Yeonjun understand what the bubbles were for when he saw her percentage rise to 30%.

He called them love meters, and after a few years of closely observing the people around him, Yeonjun was able to understand the following:

Those under 10% either felt nothing for him, or hated him entirely. He wasn’t too keen on figuring out which was which, and chose to keep his distance away from those numbers.

Those between 10-25% meant they were already attracted to him by looks alone, and he liked approaching them just to see the numbers rise after flashing a friendly smile or wink when saying hello. Most of the people he was friends with stayed around this range. The meters didn’t differentiate between platonic or romantic love, but Yeonjun figured it only made sense for his friends to feel attracted to him _just a little._

Anyone above 25% was on their way from having a small interest, to forming a crush, to totally falling in love with him once the meter reached 100%. This range was the most fun for Yeonjun. 

Being able to see who was attracted to him filled the boy with excitement, and watching the meters rise or fall depending on what he did or said to a person was thrilling. He started to treat his life like a dating sim — deciding all of his actions based on how well it raised someone's meter. Soon enough, it became too easy to predict what words or gestures would score him big brownie points. He was living the perfect model student life by the time he reached his senior year in high school, and the lifestyle proved to be incredibly boring for him. So he decided to make things a little more challenging. He knew how to raise the meter, but what did it take to make it fall back down? 

He started this little game with himself once he entered college. He’d date anyone with a rating of 30% or higher, then change his behavior to see how fast it took them to dump him after filling the meter to max completion. He never did anything to hurt or offend them, but figuring out all the things that pissed them off was just as fun as finding out what made them attracted to him in the first place. It earned him a reputation as a popular playboy who was fun to fall in love with, but terrible to stay with in a relationship. Yeonjun didn’t mind. This _was_ a game, afterall. 

If he ever found someone he was serious about, he was confident he’d never lose them. 

✽✽✽

Yeonjun arrives to his Monday morning class early. Before anyone else shows up, he speeds to the back rows and steals the second to last seat by the edge. Glancing at the empty spot next to him, he smirks a bit before throwing his legs onto the table in wait for the seat’s current owner — and his latest target, Choi Soobin. 

They had met for the first time the week before, after being partnered for a small exercise one lesson. Soobin was tall, handsome, and quite shy but what stood out to Yeonjun about him the most was the floating pink meter by his head. 

45%.

It wasn’t the first time Yeonjun had come across a secret admirer, and since his last game had ended too soon — _stealing fries really were the last straw for some people_ — he was more than ready to start another round. He took a mental note of Soobin’s favorite seat in class and with that, the game had begun. 

When Soobin arrives, it isn’t difficult to see the mixture of confusion and fluster on his face when they make eye contact. Yeonjun lets out a quiet chuckle under his breath. _This is going to be easy_. 

“Choi...Yeonjun?” Soobin says, cautiously. Yeonjun brings his legs down and looks up at Soobin, but not before giving him a more-than-obvious glance over at his 185cm body. Damn, the guy was tall. 

“What? Forget about me already, Soobin? I thought we became close after last week’s exercise.” He grins cheekily, gesturing to the empty seat next to him. If Soobin already had a crush on him, then he would’ve known about Yeonjun’s forward personality. No need to act any different than usual. 

Soobin returns the smile and takes his seat. “I didn’t forget, but...how do I say this…”

“Why am I sitting here?” Yeonjun asks, resting his arm onto the table. Soobin gives him a small nod. “Well, let’s just say after hitting it off last week, I wanted to get to know you some more...” He holds a few seconds of eye contact with Soobin, who has yet to blink, before patting him on the back. 

“I also forgot to bring the materials for this class and was hoping I could leech off of yours for today. Can I?” 

Yeonjun didn’t actually forget, but purposefully left them behind as part of his plan. He was currently in the push-and-pull stage of the game, hoping to tease Soobin with his flirty behavior while playing it off as nothing meaningful. One would usually describe that as “leading someone on”, but Yeonjun justified that since he did fully intend to date Soobin at some point that was definitely _not_ what he was doing. The other boy lets out a sigh of relief, and slides his notebook over to Yeonjun. 

“Sure, of course.” 

✽✽✽

They spend the rest of class huddled over Soobin’s notebook and papers— with Yeonjun taking every opportunity he can to get up in the younger’s personal space. He needed to gauge a level of comfort, and judging from the way he smiled and looked at him, Soobin showed that he was more than okay with what was going on. Glancing at the floating heart beside him, Yeonjun watches the percentage slowly rise.

50% already. Perfect. 

When the lecture ends, Yeonjun turns to Soobin as he’s packing his things away.

“Hey, let me thank you for showing me your notes. I’ll treat you to lunch?” The question catches Soobin off-guard and, as if he’s suddenly remembered who he was talking to, turns him back into the timid guy he was earlier that morning. 

“It’s no big deal, really. I can show you my notes any time.” 

“Well, I wanna thank you for them _this_ time. Besides... I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said I wanted to get to know you some more...” He holds another round of eye contact with Soobin, this time giving him his puppiest eyes, and holding the gaze for as long as possible before the other boy turns away. Yeonjun notes how Soobin’s ears turn bright red when he’s flustered. He definitely got the message.

“I’ve...actually got plans to meet with my club for lunch today, sorry. But here—” he scrambles through his notebook to find a blank page, and writes a series of numbers on it before ripping the page out. “Here’s my number. Wanna do dinner tonight instead?” 

Delighted, Yeonjun takes the paper, and doesn’t waste a second inputting the contact into his phone. Once it's in, he gives it a call and watches Soobin pull out his own cell from his pocket to pick it up. Through the phone, he hears Yeonjun's voice. 

“It’s a date.” 

Soobin quietly nods his head, before grabbing his things and takes his leave. As he walks away Yeonjun keeps an eye on the floating pink heart beside him, and smiles.

58%. 

He was glad he picked Soobin for this. It was only the first day, and already the game was in his favor. 

Not that it hadn’t ever been before, but it was always satisfying to watch the love meter rise each time. 

He hummed quietly as he left the room, looking forward to tonight's dinner. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry guys Yeonjun is going to seem like a manipulative ass for a lot of this fic. Please be patient with him.
> 
> Also, in case anyone is curious, the meters show up as green hearts around Yeonjun's family and relatives.


	2. Is this serious enough for you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kind comments! I’m really glad you guys like the concept, and though this is my first time writing a fic hopefully I can execute it well. Enjoy chapter 2~

Dinner with Soobin progressed with even better results than Yeonjun had anticipated. The two agreed to meet at a local restaurant close to campus, with Yeonjun taking extra steps to show up early and nicely dressed. Soobin arrived just on time, dressed in the same casual clothes he had been wearing all day, and felt apologetic on his part for the lack of effort. He confessed that he wasn’t sure if Yeonjun was being serious with him when he asked him out, to which Yeonjun replied by pulling the taller boy down— and placing a light kiss onto an unexpecting cheek. 

_Cheeks as soft as they looked_.

 _“_ Is this serious enough for you _?”_ he whispered, before drawing back and smugly watching Soobin stagger— the love meter skyrocketing up to 70%. Yeonjun was used to seeing it from his past targets, but something about Soobin’s reactions made him especially fun to tease. 

Of course, the poor guy wouldn’t have known that, to Yeonjun, games were more fun when he played them earnestly. All of his past successions might’ve appreciated the extra attention he was giving to them, but this was just the best strategy Yeonjun had for raising their numbers. Observing someone’s reactions and getting to know them were the basics of the game, and Yeonjun was a pro-player. 

That being said, he did have fun learning a thing or two about Soobin over hotpot and sushi. For one, the guy was a big eater and seafood lover, and easy to talk to about many things once he started opening up. He was also unexpectedly cheeky, able to keep up with Yeonjun’s bantering throughout the entire date.

_“If you can’t handle eating spicy food, how do you expect to handle me?”_

_“Don’t worry, something tells me you’re more sweet than spicy anyway.”_

_“Hey-”_

But above all, Soobin was a good actor. Though his meter displayed a number far from just having a crush on Yeonjun, he was doing a solid job hiding it from him. He wasn’t too awkward, just a little shy— and if not for the way he froze whenever they got too close for comfort, it would’ve seemed as if Soobin were just another good friend. It made Yeonjun wonder how he could have fallen for him so fast, considering they had never interacted before last week. The contrast between the love meter and his actions made Yeonjun unsure if he ought to be the one pushing things forward, or if things needed to be taken slow with Soobin. 

So he decided to let Soobin choose, between an angel or devil. 

✽✽✽ 

After leaving the restaurant, the two decide to head back to school dorms— with Yeonjun insisting on taking the longer route. He himself lived in an apartment close to campus, but this was a chance to find out what kind of pace he needed to set for Soobin. 

“Tell me mint chocolate isn’t the best ice cream flavor again, I dare you!”

“Sorry, but if I had to choose between mint chocolate and any other flavor, I’d go for the other flavor.”

“I can’t believe you would do this to me, Choi Soobin.”

Soobin laughs off Yeonjun’s disapproving shrug; his dimples proudly presenting themselves along his wide smile. After an entire night of seeing it, Yeonjun had to admit— he picked a pretty charming target this time. Pleasant to be around and fun to talk to, just a few hours of conversation made Yeonjun almost forget that they were practically strangers up until today. Yet something about Soobin was... comfortable and, if not for the floating heart reading at 80% in front of him, Yeonjun felt that they could have been good friends. 

But if there was anything he had learned from past experiences, it was that it was harder to stay friends with someone once he saw their love meter pass a certain point. He could try and act like he didn’t know, but the longer he pretended, the more it felt like he was faking their friendship altogether— and it always led to someone getting hurt in the end. It might seem hypocritical, but he always pitied those who were unfortunate enough to fall in love with someone who could literally see it happen in real time. He was sorry it had to be him, unintentionally invading their privacy without even being able to reciprocate their feelings. In a way, the love meter games were just a roundabout way of rejecting people without having to break their hearts. Though he played with his relationships, he did his best to end them on good terms, with a mutual understanding that they were better off just friends. 

He watches as Soobin fumbles with his jacket pockets awkwardly, unsure of where to put his hands as they walked together.

 _Hopefully after this, we can still be_.

✽✽✽ 

When they reach the dorm building, there's a moment of awkward silence as Soobin struggles with his doorkeys. Yeonjun holds back a stifled laugh, “Are you always this clumsy?” 

“Leave me alone, this lock is just really small and I can’t see it well in the dark.”

“Suuuure.” 

As he manages the door open, he looks back at Yeonjun who is standing behind him. A sudden awareness that it is just the two of them there finds Soobin at a loss for words, and Yeonjun catches the younger staring.

“You can blink, Soobin, I’m not going anywhere yet.” 

“I wasn’t— I mean, I was, but not....sorry.” He covers his face with one hand, embarrassed. Yeonjun grins, happy to see Soobin’s true feelings starting to show. Looking over at the love meter floating by his head, Yeonjun reads a bright 85%. A little devil on his shoulder sings, and he saunters closer to Soobin by the entrance.

This guy was falling hard, and fast. 

“Well, if you’re gonna stare...is it alright for me to expect something?” He tries to read Soobin’s covered face when his hand comes down, revealing an expression that Yeonjun wasn’t quite expecting.

Soobin was blushing, but he seemed to be puzzled by the question.

“Wait, really?”

Yeonjun takes another glance at the love meter. 88%. 

“I’ve literally been flirting with you this entire night, so yes, really.”

“Oh. That was real.”

_90%._

“Did you think I was faking it?” _What an ironic question._ “Did it bother you?”

“It didn’t! I mean, no, it's just-” Soobin lets go of the door to cover his face with both hands, and falls to a crouch. “I’ve actually...had a crush on you for some time already...”

His voice softens to a whisper as he confesses his feelings. "I just can't believe this is happening...and so fast."

_94%._

Yeonjun smiles, finding it cute how flustered Soobin was acting before him. He crouches down as well, patting the boy’s soft black hair.

_95%._

“Well, it is, so where do we go from here?" He questions, softly. "You asked me earlier if I was being serious when I asked you out this morning, so now I’m asking you again.” 

_98%._

“I like you Soobin. Will you go out with me?”

There’s a pause that feels like the entire world is holding its breath. Yeonjun sees the love meter reach 99% when his hands are taken a hold of, and Soobin pulls him close.

His kiss is quiet and gentle— still unsure of everything that's happening but knowing he wants it to happen. When he pulls back, he looks at Yeonjun and smiles. 

_100%._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins....Soobin definitely had trouble opening the door again after that.


	3. He must really like you.

There are two rules that Yeonjun follows for phase two of his game. The first goes without saying: don’t cross any lines. He’s here to have fun and play around, not turn himself into the world’s most despicable human being known to man. The goal was to _charm_ and _annoy_ people, not personally offend them.

The second rule was that he couldn’t break up with anyone himself first; the other party needed to do it for him. Breaking up with someone was the quickest and easiest way to drop a love meter down by at _least_ 30% and, depending on the person, it might fall even further. There wouldn’t be much of a game if he could always end things so easily — not to mention the risk of gaining a reputation as a suspicious creeper if he did it too often. 

Besides, he may be a playboy that takes advantage of love meters by using them to manipulate people’s feelings, but he swears he’s not a mean guy. He’d even argue that, by some definition, being in a relationship with someone he didn’t love for however long until they were ready to end it themself might actually make him the most _selfless_ person on the planet. And it's not like he was dating anyone out of pity, he was actually interested in them — even if it wasn’t technically romantic. 

In any case, all those years of watching love meters go up and down may have given Yeonjun a twisted sense of moral logic, but he’s confident that what he’s doing isn’t _completely_ evil. Someone else in his position could be doing a lot worse. 

So with all this being said, the first thing Yeonjun thinks of after leaving Soobin on that wondrous Monday night is _how should I piss him off?_

Yep. Totally a nice guy.

✽✽✽

“So who’s the new boyfriend?”

Yeonjun glances up from doing morning stretches to see his junior, Choi Beomgyu, standing behind him in the mirror. A second year who shadowed him around the Dance department at summer orientation two years back, Beomgyu was one of the few close friends Yeonjun had whose meter rose all the way to 29% and stayed there. He was like a little brother now, looking up to and admiring Yeonjun’s skills as a dancer without minding his reputation as the school player. 

“Just because I post a picture of us on twitter means we’re dating?” Yeonjun retorts, hands on his hips like an offended suburban mother. 

Beomgyu laughs out loud and it reverbs everywhere in the empty dance studio.

“First of all, you didn’t post just _one_ . I’m getting hungry again thinking about all those pics I saw last night of the two of you eating delicious hotpot and sushi. You should’ve invited me! All I had for dinner were leftover dumplings and Arizona tea.” He rubs his belly half-faking hunger, ignoring Yeonjun’s scoff and eye roll. “Also, the last thing you tweeted was literally _Got me a Soobin more like a Soo-babe amiright?_ heart-emoji heart-emoji kissy-face-emoji, peace sign. Gross.”

“Hey, I’m proud of that joke!”

“Please, you’re proud of all of them. Anyway does _Soo-babe_ even know how many embarrassing pictures you posted of him to the world last night? If it were me I’d decimate you on the spot.” he spouts all of this as he crouches to the floor, preparing to start his own warm ups. 

Beomgyu was as bratty as he was talkative, and Yeonjun sometimes wondered if he was being a bad influence on him these past two years, but he holds himself back from smacking the younger upside because, to be fair, he was completely on the mark. Yeonjun _did_ go on a social media frenzy last night, flooding his friends and followers’ feeds with raw unedited pictures of the entire date without telling Soobin. It was all part of phase two in _Operation: Get Dumped_. That last tweet was just the cherry on top. 

He wasn’t sure how Soobin would react, but his timidness implied that he enjoyed his privacy, and probably wouldn’t appreciate half the campus (along with hundreds of other strangers on the internet) knowing who he was via Yeonjun’s twitter account. The pictures weren’t exactly flattering either, so doing this would definitely score at _least_ a 10-15% drop on anyone.

He’s lost in thought estimating what percentage Soobin’s love meter might fall to when Beomgyu suddenly interrupts, “Hey, it's Soo-babe!”

Surprised, Yeonjun darts his eyes over to see Beomgyu opening the door for what definitely looks like all 185cm of a Choi Soobin. He walks in shyly, trying to hide what seems to be coffee and a small paper bag behind his back, and Yeonjun spots the love meter quietly floating beside him.

 _Still at 100%_.

Yeonjun wasn’t expecting to see him at the dance studio so early, having made plans to meet for lunch later that day, but this could be even better — especially with his cheeky junior here. The kid is practically revolving around Soobin by the time he walks over to greet him. 

“This is a nice surprise, whatcha doin’ here _babe?_ ” he asks, making sure to put extra emphasis on that last word, “You’re pretty far from the Computer Engineer building.” 

“Computer Engineering?!” Beomgyu exclaims, “That’s across the entire campus!” 

Soobin blushes furiously, feeling exposed and clearly unprepared for the sudden pet name. Yeonjun silently thanks his junior for being so energetic early in the morning. 

“Well, you told me last night that you spend your mornings in the practice rooms, so I thought I’d come check it out and maybe... drop off some coffee?” he reveals the iced americano he had hiding behind his back and hands Yeonjun the paper bag. “There were more donut bites in there, but I got hungry on the way here.” 

“Ooh, nice one Soo-babe! Hyung, you’re definitely sharing those right?” Beomgyu says, automatically switching his focus from Soobin to the bag of donuts. Satisfied with Beomgyu's performance for the morning, Yeonjun rewards him with the bag. “Sure, take some.” 

There is slight tinge of dejection on Soobin’s face, and Yeonjun wonders if he were also the type to get upset over stolen french fries. Food was a common deal breaker for a lot of people. 

“Yes! _Breakfast_!” Beomgyu cheers, and turns to Soobin. “I’m Beomgyu by the way, and just as a preemptive warning, 60% of any food you bring to Yeonjun-hyung is actually going to me so don’t hesitate to bring him a lot. I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone now- don't get any funny ideas. Nice meeting you, Sooba— I mean, Soobin!” 

He leaves before Soobin can even reply, and with that it's just the two of them alone again in the studio. Yeonjun lets out a lighthearted laugh.

“He’s like this with everyone I’ve ever introduced him to, sorry.” he says, accepting the coffee from Soobin's hand. 

“It’s alright, my roommate is a first year who's a lot like him, kind of." Soobin smirks, "Also, did he just call me Soo- _babe_?” He raises his eyebrow in a jokingly-suspicious manner. Yeonjun laughs again, and goes to sit on the floor against the wall with his coffee, gesturing for Soobin to sit with him. A morning ray shines from the window above them, and Yeonjun notices from their shadows just how big of a size difference there was between the two of them. After another sip of coffee he pulls out his phone, and opens to his Twitter page. 

“So I may have posted about our date last night on twitter. There’s a bunch of cute - _and not so cute -_ pictures of us - _mostly you -_ eating that all-you-can-eat brisket and sushi.” Yeonjun scrolls through the account, feigning innocence, while Soobin’s eyes widen as he begins to process himself in the pictures. “And I just got sooo excited that I _may_ have announced that we were dating in the form of a _masterfully_ crafted joke, if I do say so myself.”

He stops scrolling on the tweet in question, and places a hand on Soobin’s thigh half-apologetically. “Anyway, I know I didn’t ask if you were okay with me posting all of this, since we did just get together last night, but are you mad?”

Soobin’s reaction isn’t much, but it’s clear from his facial expression that he isn’t happy with what he was just told. Yeonjun glances over at the love meter, expecting it to have dropped a bit by now, but is surprised with what he sees.

100%. Huh?

Yeonjun doesn't get another chance to look at the heart when suddenly, the door bursts open. A flood of other dance students starts coming into the room to start the morning class, with Beomgyu walking amongst them. When he spots the two, he rushes over to Yeonjun and hands him an empty paper bag. 

“Before you say anything, Soobin only left you like, three pieces so if you’re gonna be mad at anyone be mad at him.” 

“Oh my god I’m gonna be so late!” Soobin blurts, scrambling to his feet and feeling more outside his comfort zone now than ever. “Sorry, I gotta sprint if I wanna make it to class. We’ll talk more about this later!”

He makes a start for the door, but pauses for a second before coming back to give Yeonjun a small kiss on the cheek and whispering into his ear— his deep tone of voice catching the older off-guard.

" _Don't worry,_ _I'm not mad. I'm actually really happy. See you at lunch later?"_

He gives Yeonjun a radiant grin before leaving, and as he does Yeonjun watches the love meter follow after — still bright pink and full. Soobin was definitely lying about being okay with it, but if so his meter should've dropped a bit by now. Did Yeonjun completely read him wrong? He was so sure about that strategy as a first move, and even had Beomgyu there as a bonus, but the meter barely even budged. He didn't even thank him for the coffee. Maybe Soobin was more of a pushover than he initially thought. 

“Man, the Computer building is so far. He must really like you, hyung!” Beomgyu says, giving a supportive pat on the back. “Let's hope he stays."

Something pangs inside of Yeonjun when he hears this, but he isn’t really sure what. It’d been a while since he had made such a mistake like this in his calculations, but Soobin proved way more forgiving than he’d expected. A full meter? Most people would’ve gone down even just a little after that. 

Did he really like him that much? Why? They only just started going out last night. They _barely_ knew each other. 

It occurred to Yeonjun that that was just it. He'd assumed that he was dealing with another shy guy with a crush, someone who'd easily lose their good impression of him, but clearly Soobin knew what he was getting into. So Yeonjun needed to do more research, needed to change his game plan. But he wasn't worried — the thought of a possible challenge excited him, and the day was just getting started. The _game_ was only just beginning. 

A competitive spark ignites inside of him. 

_Choi Soobin, what ticks you off?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please feed Beomgyu.


End file.
